There is a general need in commerce for companies and individuals to acquire business intelligence related to their products, brands, and markets. For decades, this has been done via the primary market-research methodologies of surveys, focus groups, and diary studies. However, these methods all suffer from similar shortcomings: very small sample sizes; unrepresentative sampling; an emphasis on stated opinion versus revealed opinion; and high cost, as skilled individuals are needed to design and implement market-research studies.
Analysis of blog postings and tweets has emerged recently as a new way of tracking sentiment and awareness on all kinds of topics. Although techniques such as Twitter® mining purport to capture opinions on a scale that is vastly greater than that possible with standard survey methods, they are problematic for several reasons, such as: the opinions often come from a vocal minority, and can be skewed to extremes; and even with the best algorithms, it is difficult to classify accurately the topic and polarity of free-form text fragments.
Recently some companies have developed games that serve to elicit market-research or business-intelligence data from players. For example, guessing games are one type of game that may be used to collect business intelligence. A word-guessing game is a game in which the objective is to guess a target word or phrase that describes an object, a person, or a concept. Typically these games are played co-operatively by two or more players: one player, the clue giver, knows the target word/phrase, but cannot tell the other(s), the guesser(s), explicitly what it is. However, the clue giver can help the guessers arrive at the target word/phrase with the help of clues. A classic example of such a guessing game is “charades,” where a person who knows the topic or item, such as a famous person, gives indirect clues to others until someone or no one can guess the topic or item.
KNOWSY® is an example of a game that was designed specifically to elicit market-research or business-intelligence data from players. One player ranks a list of favorite items around a theme, such as award-nominated movies, New Year's resolutions, or favorite sports teams. His partner tries to guess the order correctly. The rankings chosen by both players can be used to gauge the players' sentiment, awareness, and preferences of products, brands, and people.
Another example of a game designed to elicit market-research data is HowMutch®. It is a single-person game that poses a simple question: “How much would you pay for X?” X can be anything: a product, a dare, or an activity. For example, “How much would someone have to pay you to lick the sole of your shoe?” or “How much would you pay for an unlimited smartphone data plan?” Once the player enters an amount, it is matched with other responses to the same question and a comparison of the player's price versus the median price is shown.
Board games can be a source of inspiration for guessing games that can elicit market-research or business-intelligence data. The board game TABOO® from Hasbro, Inc. is one such game. The objective of the game is for the clue giver to have the guessers guess a given target word on a card without using the word itself or five additional words listed on the card. For example, the clue giver might have to get the guessers to say the word “baseball” without using the words “sport,” “game,” “pastime,” “hitter,” “pitcher,” or “baseball” itself as clues. The clue giver may not say a part of a taboo word; for example, using “base” in “baseball” is taboo. The clue giver's hints may not rhyme with a taboo word or be an abbreviation of a taboo word.
Train of Thought® from Tasty Minstrel Games is another board game whose mechanic is potentially useful for eliciting market-research data. In this game the clue giver tries to get guessers to guess a given target word on a card by giving a three-word clue, one word of which is mandated, and that cannot include the target word. In the first round, the mandated word is specified on the card. If none of the current round of guesses is correct, the clue-giver creates another three-word clue, using one of the guessed words from the previous round and two other words. For example, the clue giver might have to get the guessers to say the word “cow” by offering a three-word clue that includes the word “eats.” So the clue giver might say “what eats grass.” If any of the guessers say “cow,” then that person wins the game. If instead the guesses are “sheep,” “horse,” and “lawnmower,” then the clue giver must use one of these words in a second three-word clue; and so on until someone guesses the target word/phrase correctly.
Brown and Marks devised a Web-based market-research game called Cascadence that was based on classic word-guessing games like Taboo® and Train of Thought®. As in those games, the clue giver sends clues to induce the guesser to guess a given target word or phrase. In Cascadence the clue giver is presented with a continuous stream of clue words in a Web browser on a computer display, with new words appearing at the top of the screen and old words scrolling off the bottom of the screen. The clue giver can choose which words from the visible part of the stream to send to the guesser to elicit a correct guess. The clue giver can also remove or reorder the words sent to the guesser to communicate further hints about the target word or phrase. The clue words chosen and their de-selection and re-ordering can be interpreted to generate market-research data. However, as in the above conventional board games, there is no incentive for the clue giver to use words that are more revealing of sentiment or knowledge than other words. Moreover, because the number of words visible at any point in the game play is restricted, it is difficult for the clue giver to compare different words for their revelatory power before sending them as clues. Finally, the implementation of the game on a Web browser limits the ability to play the game, as users needed to have access to a suitable network connection, computer, and display.
There is therefore a need for a new guessing game on a new platform to collect primary market-research data from consumers that is more revelatory of players' opinions and knowledge, and that is more accessible and engaging.